RCMP sitting on requested contents of firearms registry

The RCMP is sitting on a completed Access to Information request that could reveal how sharply the registration of handguns and assault-style rifles may have increased in the first half of 2017.

The data, contained in a response last November to a request for information about contents of the National Firearms Registry from Jan. 1 to July 1, 2017, has so far been sent to iPolitics only in a format that would be nearly impossible to go through, or in an electronic Excel version that could not be used.

iPolitics began its informal request for the pre-released information, a routine way of obtaining data several months after its release under a formal request by another person, in early January.

An official in the RCMP Access to Information branch first responded to the request by sending a PDF version of the registry up to July 1, 2017.

After being reminded that the 31,000-page PDF would be virtually impossible to manage in a reasonable period of time for analysis, the branch official sent another version in an Excel sheet format.

That version — on a compact disk that should have been sortable, with columns covering the make of handguns and restricted or prohibited rifles, their models, dates registered and even dates stolen — arrived in a “locked” mode that required a password to unlock.

An identical release of the registry records for Jan. 1 to July 1, 2016, in an Excel format, revealed a steep rise in Canada of the registration of handguns particularly, but also an expected and continuing rise in the number of restricted rifles — primarily modern versions of assault-style semi-automatic rifles that have become the gun of choice for sport shooters and even hunters.

For the first six months of 2016, the registration of restricted handguns by individuals totalled 46,898.

Registration of restricted semi-automatic rifles by individuals for the same six months totalled 5,308, following the registration of 10,213 restricted rifles by individuals in 2015, a steep rise from earlier in the decade.

As of Friday, the RCMP access branch official who processed the iPolitics request, had not responded to a Feb. 9 email seeking either the password for the locked Excel disk, or a new CD Excel version that could be used.

The official did not respond to a telephone call Friday.

A media officer in the office of the federal Access to Information Commissioner could not be reached on Friday for guidance.

The Commissioner of the RCMP, who also the chief registrar of the National Firearms Registry, is now preparing an annual report on restricted and prohibited registrations for 2017.